Perfect late autumn racing conditions at least partly made up for yet another visit to Long Swamp this afternoon. With roadwork on Dangarsleigh Rd, it was a return to the hilly course for the third time in a month. Some good recent form for a few riders had to eventually catch the attention of the handicapper and Chris Stace and Pete Harris found themselves back a group or two which was then made even tougher for Chris who missed his start and set off solo 35s in arrears of his 9-minute bunch.
At the front of the race, Jo Wauch had company for a change and seemed to be working well with Derek Shirlaw, at least they were both all smiles for most of the race and with good reason, having a healthy 13 minutes on the Scratch pair of Dave Munday and Mick Harris.
By the time riders climbed Imbota for the first time, groups were starting to combine and Chris had managed to latch onto the back of the 11-minute group with Swanny going well up the long drag. Not far back the big Block group were making good inroads although hot on their heels were the Scratch pair who caught them just over the top.
At the turn, the lead pair still had almost 5 minutes on their chasers – Carl Hooton was going well and looking more like a road racer every week. He had Wilko, Alex and Clint for company and they swung around with a healthy advantage of 2m:20s on their chasers who had now swelled to 10 with the Scratch/Block combination sweeping up the groups inbetween.
The lead pair were looking ridiculously relaxed, Jo even having time to instruct Derek to “smile for the camera” as they sailed downhill inside the last 10km with Scratch still over 5m in arrears.
Mick Harris and Dave gave it a bit of a kick on the second outward leg as they went up the back side of Imbota which dropped a few off the back, leaving only Dave Harris, Cookie, and Pete Harris in attendance. They then traded blows back up Imbota and at the top, only Cookie, Mick and Dave Munday were left. This trio picked up Carl, Clint, Alex and Wilko who stayed with them until the final fireworks show on Dump Hill.
Cookie and Mick enjoyed a few tactical games and managed to work over Dave Munday which let Mick launch a blistering early attack on the second part of the hill. Up ahead, the smiling assassins were already home, Jo easing away on the final ramp of the climb and crossing with an advantage of 19s over Derek.
Mick (who looked remarkably like De KleerhangerKruijswijk) grabbed third place and fastest time on the day – actually a course record since we started recording times in early 2014. He averaged 40.16kph for his time of 45m:07s which was 8s quicker than the previous record set by Harrison Munday in Feb 2015. There was some consolation for Dave too, as he also just edged out Harrison’s time by 2s.
Congratulations to Jo on a fine victory and to everyone that competed on the day – there were some solid performances across the board with Carl Hooton, Derek Shirlaw, Pete Harris and Dave Harris notably all recording PBs. Many thanks also for a flawless performance on the stopwatch and with the signs Jacqui King.
At the top of the RROTY league things are getting very tight. Despite missing the start and ending up with a DNF, Chris Stace just hangs on to the lead by 1 point from Alex Thomas, in turn just 1 point ahead of Dave Munday. Lots to play for and next week we escape the Long Swamp course for a 40km rollercoaster ride on Boorolong – be careful what you wish for!
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